This delicious blackberry buttercream is bursting with summer flavor and absolutely ideal for filling and frosting cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and more. It’s made with fresh blackberries that are pureed and then reduced to intensify the flavor of the berries while eliminating most of the liquid. This process helps add tons of blackberry flavor to the buttercream while maintaining the perfect frosting consistency.
Flavoring Blackberry Buttercream with Fresh Berries
Blackberries are super flavorful, but it turns out that it’s not enough to simply crush up the berries and add them into a buttercream recipe. They contain so much liquid that adding them straight up would make the frosting runny and impossible to work with. The trick to flavoring buttercream with fresh blackberries (or really, any berry) is to first puree the berries and then reduce the puree until most of the liquid is evaporated.This involves cooking the berries in a saucepan until they become more of a jam-like consistency. I’ll show you how it works in the next section!
How to Make Blackberry Buttercream
Step 1. Puree the Blackberries. You can do this with a food processor or by adding them to the saucepan whole and cooking them until they soften and you can crush them up.
Step 2. Strain Out the Seeds. This is an optional step, but if you want a seedless blackberry buttercream you’ll want to press the reduced blackberry puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
Step 3. Reduce the Blackberry Puree. Cook the blackberry puree over medium heat until it begins to boil, then lower the heat slightly and continue cooking until the volume is reduced by half. In this case, you’ll start with ½ cup of puree and cook until you have about ¼ cup of reduced puree.
Step 4. Cool the Blackberry Puree. Let the blackberry puree cool to room temperature in the refrigerator. This takes about 30 minutes, but you can also make the reduced puree ahead of time, refrigerate, and bring it back to room temperature before adding it to the buttercream in the next step.
Step 5. Add the Blackberries to the Buttercream. Add the blackberries to the buttercream recipe along with the salt at the end of the recipe below.
Blackberry Buttercream FAQ
- Can I Use Freeze-Dried Blackberries Instead? Yes, absolutely! Use this strawberry buttercream recipe instead, but swap out the freeze-dried strawberries for freeze-dried blackberries.
- Can I Use Frozen Blackberries? Yes. Just be sure to thaw and dry them before pureeing and reducing. You may need to reduce them for a little longer than the recipe indicates because ice tends to add extra liquid content.
- How Far in Advance Can I Make Blackberry Buttercream? The blackberry buttercream can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If you want to make the reduced puree ahead of time you can store that in an airtight container for up to one week before using it in the buttercream recipe.
- How Stable is this Blackberry Buttercream? It’s stable enough for using as a filling and a frosting for cakes and cupcakes, piping details, and using as a macaron filling.
Cake Flavors to Pair with Blackberry Buttercream
I love pairing this blackberry buttercream with vanilla cupcakes, coconut cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes. A double batch would also be amazing as filling and frosting for the following cake flavors:
I hope you love this blackberry buttercream as much as I do! Let me know what you pair it with in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram and show me. I love to see what you create with my recipes!
Blackberry Buttercream
Ingredients
- 5 Oz (1 Cup) fresh blackberries see notes for using frozen blackberries
- 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 1/2 Cups (420g) powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Make the Reduced Blackberry Puree
- Using a food processor, puree the blackberries (you’ll end up with about ½ Cup after this). Add the blackberry puree into a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it becomes jam-like and has reduced by half. You’ll end up with about ¼ Cup of reduced puree after this step. Let it cool completely to room temperature (either in the refrigerator or on the counter) before moving on in the recipe.
Make the Blackberry Buttercream
- With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar about a cup at a time and mix on low speed, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl and paddle as needed.
- Add the (room temperature!) reduced blackberry puree and a pinch of salt. Continue mixing on low speed until fully incorporated and smooth, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed, 1-2 minutes.
Notes
- The reduced blackberry puree can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. Bring it back to room temperature before using it in the buttercream recipe.
- The blackberry buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-mix in your stand mixer on low speed to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency.
- Frost 12-15 cupcakes with a piping bag
- Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch or 9-inch cake.
- To have enough for frosting and decorating the above cake sizes, double the recipe.
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